In 1996, this was the first book published about the design and construction of real-time 3D art used in commercial video games and virtual reality projects.
A practical handbook for production artists, the book provided methods and processes for designing and constructing real-time rendered 3D models of objects, people, and landscapes using technical constraints and tools available in the early 1990s.
Citations
J. Oudshoorn (1999): Ray Tracing As The Future Of Computer Games. Thesis,
Department of Computer Science, University of Utrecht (http://give-lab.cs.uu.nl/ve&gd/raytracing.pdf)
E. Chadwick (2000): An Artist’s Real-Time 3D Glossary. (http://www.ericchadwick.com/portfolio/glossary/examples/author.html)
D. Colleen (2006): Digital Cities: Building High Resolution City Models…. Evolving Standards
R. Traunmuller (1996): The design of computer supported cooperative work and groupware systems. ACM Interactions, volume 3, issue 6, page 85.
Reviews:
“This is the only book I know of devoted to the subject..”
– Amazon reader reviews:
“This book, published in 1996, focuses on developing the skills and techniques that are needed to become proficient at creating professional real-time 3D models. To do this, the book offers a low-level understanding of how real-time 3D works and discusses specific methods and techniques for specific 2D and 3D modeling software used by most professionals (Kinetix’s 3D Studio 4 is featured). Technical issues are addressed, including the understanding of file formats and giving detailed descriptions of how real-time 3D rendering takes place. This is necessary because real-time 3D models are based on taking advantage of the rendering techniques used by the graphics engine; for the reader, this will provide a low-level understanding that will enable them to create optimal real-time 3D models. The book features detailed methods for building real-time 3D models that are perfectly suited to every commercially available real-time 3D rendering library (“3D engine”). This section of the book is structured like a tour of each engine, describing features and problems inherent to each one.”
E. Cove (2000): “There is relatively little literature out there on low-polygon modeling techniques. This is the only book I know of devoted to the subject. It is clear, well-written, with good exercises.”